For those who have the same warped sense of humour this Letter can also be had in French.
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Monday, October 28, 2013

My dead son Simon Abbott has become a sort of game show football in the Channel Island of Jersey. The cowards
were kicking him about on Facebook
now that he’s not around to defend himself.

And the game’s promoter
was none other than Tony Bellows that
lover of the truth and defender of cyber-bully Murray Norton(See
my postDEFENDING MURRAYNORTON by TonyBellows)BREAKING: 30/10/2013 BBC Radio Presenter Murray Norton announced today on his 9-12 slot that it was his last day for the foreseeablefuture.

Not content with his long winded defence
of Norton on his blog Tony’s Musings, Bellows had to have
another punch at Simon by starting a Facebook debate on the Politics Jersey Forum so that everybody
could join in.

TONY BELLOWS

He began it to discuss Britain’sMail
on Sunday splash about Norton
and my son’s death headedBBC man’s Twitterbullying campaign helped kill my
son.

Through out all this bad publicity Norton, who had previously been so
outspoken in running down my son on Twitter
and Facebook, remained mum.

The Mail’s report endedOur
calls to him went unanswered.

South
Africa’s Sunday Afrikaansnewspaper Rapportgot
the same brush off.

And on Tony’s Facebook page Jacques
Chartier rightly commented:Murray had the chance to respond. Why didn’the?

A guilty conscience perhaps or more
likely the BBC had told him to lie
low, at least until my complaint to
it had been finalised.

Anybody seen MURRAY NORTON lately?

Alternatively may be he was relying
purely on his friend Tony to bellow
enough on Facebook and anywhere else to convince everyone that he had done
nothing wrong.

Jill Graciasummed
up Tony’s efforts perfectly with
thesevery appropriate words on the
Forum that Bellows was moderating:I haveread every single comment on this thread, and all I can say is, as a
mother who has suffered the loss of a son, to speak ill of the dead is the most
heartbreaking, obnoxious path anybody can take for the grieving parent/family.
Not knowing the rights and wrongs of this case let us wait until the true facts
become known, and lest we forget Murray Norton is still
around to give his ‘take’ on this. Simon Abbott
is not and therefore an easy target for the knockers. Let him RIP and give the
family some respect rather than
airing all the dirty linen in public.

A 2009 tribute that is just as relevant today

You would think that Bellows would have been more in line
with Jill’s thinking having lost his
partner Annie in 2009 - the same year that Simon’s sister Samantha died.

And that tarot card reader of note Maureen Morgan, who is so adept at
telling people their fortune, also took this opportunity to knock Simon once again. She was one of eight
people including her friend Norton
who Simon sued for libel damages in Jersey’s Royal Court.

After cyber-bullying prevented Simon from
holding events in Jersey to raise
money for the Samantha Abbott Trust
that he set up to help women with
post natal depression, he tried to stage one in Britain in Exeter,Devon where his mother’s family had come from.

LOVE MUST BE CRINGING

That was when Morgan joined Norton and
others and effectively killed it. In the court papers Morgan admitted that she posted the following on Facebook:Please take note
myDevon fiends – THIS IS A SCAM!It is run by a man called Simon Abbott who conned and upset a lot of people in
Jersey. He tried his luck in Guernsey
but we managed to nip that in the bud. Please spread the word. Thank youx

To show what a lap dog (I was sorely tempted to get thegender right) she was she added that shedid this at thesuggestion of Mr
Murray Norton.Her defence was that she hadreasonable grounds(no proof, mind you) forsuspectingit
was true.

Presumably if a well known BBC presenter said it was then it must
be so.

But
it wasn’t true and this was born out by the fact that neither the Police nor
any other official body ever took any action against Simon.

On Bellow’sknock Simon
Abbott page Morgan
piously stated:Cyber-bullying isunacceptable but that
emphaticallyis not what
happened to Simon Abbott. What he
called bullying in my case was telling him publicly on Twitter , in my own name(that
made a change as much of the bullying wasdone by various people using false names)that he was wrongto run a mum’s group on Twitter
(MUMsInTheUK) anonymously and encouraging vulnerable women
he was a mother too. He wanted to take out another libel action against me for
stating the group was run by a middle aged man who was not in the UK, not
understanding that the truth cannot be libel.

Is Jersey not considered to be in the UK
then?

On the Twitter Profile for
MUMsInTheUK it clearly stated it was created by Simon in memory of his sister and it asked people to support the Samantha AbbottTrust.

Does that make itanonymousMaureen?Let’s
hope, forthe sake of your paying customers, that your tarot card readings are a lot more
accurate than your Twitter Profile
readings. Otherwise I’m afraid, to use your logic that would be classified as conning people.

Maureen
took time out from running down
my son to have a go at TrevorPitman, a member of Jersey’s Parliament. Bellowsbannedhim
from the Forum for as Trevor put
it:Daring to criticise the handful of people
who Bellows was letting have a free rein to attack a man who obviously could
not answer back. It probably made him feel important being able to ban an
elected politician whilst letting the people carrying out the abuse just carry
on.

But Trevor was not kicked out before the following spat with Morgan, which showed her up for what
she is.

Pitman:Thanks for the message from
one of thecontributors here,
who shall remain nameless referenceMaureen Morgan’s homophobic
comment that my photo is ‘camp’ (Actually
very happy with that as someone who
stands up for equality for gay people). But hate filled AND homophobic – what a winning combination
Maureen! Still, chuckle I certainly did when I read this; ‘Never mind Maureen’s
abuse about your hands on your hips photo Trev. At least you can fit your hips
in to a single frame photo.’ Humour – Isn’t it great for stress.

﻿

MORGAN throwing her weight around

Morgan:I said you had a very camp pose – that isn’thomophobic.
Camp is defined as ‘exaggerated effeminate mannerisms, posturing.’ My large number
of Gay & lesbian friends will find it hilarious that you think I’m homophobic. It’s amazing how much you guess and have
wrong about me(That’s exactly what you did Maureen where Simon wasconcerned).Grow up Trevor.

Morgan:And to clarify I don’t hate anybody, not even youTrevor, despite your aggressive
and bullying tactics. The only thing I hate is the lies being told about SimonAbbott(And she knows better than
anybody who one of the chief culprits were),the reason I got
involved.

Pitman: Maureen face
facts. You are a bully and worse, youhave a selective memory about your unwarranted abuse.

PITMAN

Pitman:So Maureen, if the only thing you hate is the lies being told about
Simon Abbott, tell me this, having
never before spoken to you let alone insulted you what prompted
you, let alone warranted the ill-informed abuse aimed at me.

Back on the subject of my son.

Morgan:I’ve been
criticised here for ‘attacking a deadman.’ I want to make it clearthat
my comments are made purely as a
result of the issues being dragged into the spotlight by Jon
Abbott via the Mail on Sunday. Had that not happened I would
not have written another word about Simon Abbott
on any public forum. Tony I would begrateful if you would let this comment
stand to clarify my purpose please.

Bellows
had been busy deleting some comments and warning peoplenot to post anything which may bedefamatory of Mr Abbott’s father.He added:The moderators have discussed this and
think it would be wise to remove any entries which may have potential legal
implications. This will be done shortly.

Ring any bells TONY?

But it is anybody’s guess as to
how many people saw certain abusivecomments before they were deleted.As Pitman said:Some
may have been wiped by Bellows after my ban to make things look more balanced.

Bellows did make this one concession to
my son.Jacques Chartier has noted that Iam friends with some of
Simon’s detractors. That’s true, but I always research on a strict historical
fact basis. That’s why some of the
accusations levelled against Mr Abbott, that he abused women
on anti-natal groups, I can see no evidence for.

The BELLOWS still fanning the flames

As you showed on your blog Tony, you mightresearch on a
strict historical fact basis,but then you draw the wrong
conclusions from the facts and get some of them wrong as well.

I’m just wondering what people like Norton, Morgan and the numerous other cyber-bullies who flew in like
vultures for the social media killing of my son will do now for amusement.

Pick on somebody
else I suppose, unless the authorities in Jerseydo something about this
at long last. Vulturescan’t liveon one kill forever.

Regards,

Jon

Note: I’m not finished yet. There are still
some more cyber-bullies who need to
be named and shamed. That may be the only way to clip their wings and keep them
grounded, at least temporarily, if that’s possible.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

I hope you don’t mind if I begin by
introducing you to my readers. Tony is
a 55 year old prolific author and
blogger (Tony’s Musings). He lives
on the ChannelIsland
of Jersey
and from what I’ve seen on the
internet this could be in the running for the title of Cyber-bullying capital of the World.

To
use the island’s pet expression, if this is TheJersey Wayit
is nothing to be proud of.

Anyway
Tony the real point of this letter
to you is to deal with the whitewash job you did on Murray Norton,the BBC Jersey Radio presenter, whose cyber-bullying
activities were exposed by Britain’s Mail on Sunday to its 2-million odd readers.BREAKING: 30/10/2013 Norton announced on his 9-12 slot that this would be his last day for the foreseeable future.

And
also of course on my blog (see Where have allthe children gone? DID CYBER
BULLIES KILL SIMON ABBOTT & CYBER WOLVES HUNTING SIMON ABBOTT).

Your
version made him whiter than the best washing powder could ever do.

BBC Jersey Radio presenter MURRAY NORTON

Surely
Nortonis big enough to stand up for
himself. I gather he wouldn’t speak to the Mail on Sunday, which speaks volumes. And when
Simon sued him for libel he
justified nothing in his answering affidavit, but merely denied all Simon’s allegations.

On
your blog you say that my son had decided tosuethose who hadunwisely used robust language in describing him.You
neglected to mention that Nortonwas
one of them.

And
if there was nothing basically wrong with what had been said why did you
describe its use as unwise?

By a strange coincidence robust languageis exactly howJon Gripton, Norton’s
BBC boss,
described what Nortonused when he ruled that this had
not been cyber-bullying.

Was
that once again the Jersey Way I wondered?

You
excuse the use of the word conby
saying: Someof the language used may have
been provocative, but Mr Abbott’s rebuff against legitimate questions probably
caused that.

What obligation did my son have to explain
himself to people, many of whom he
had probably never met, when they were slating him on the internet?

You added: The essence of Twitter is brevity, andwhile the word ‘con’ may not
imply a criminal scam, that is not always apparent.

If you think that the use of the word con can have another meaning other than
that the person is a crook then you are in Jersey fairyland. And Twitter’s brevity is not an excuse for indelibly staining somebody’s character.

Con
man, con artist or con merchant is a person who swindles others by means of
deception or fraud. In other words a crook.

Elsewhere
you say: We have to look at theparameters of deception. It is
pretty clear that Mr Abbott was not an outright conman(is
there a difference between this and an ordinary conman?), aiming to swindle people of goods and funds and make a tidy
profit. But there are other kinds of deception, such as continuing to promote events while aware of financial mismanagement
because of accounting ineptitude. That is not deliberate deception, but it is
hiding the true state of affairs.

You were doing everything you could to put
a dishonesty label on him. He was trying various schemes in an effort to get
one to work. And he didn’t have to do much accounting because he hardly made
any money.

But in doing so he never
defrauded anybody. In fact he said in a statement I have that if tickets were
sold for events that never took place he always gave people their money back.

You
say you have been unable to trace whathappenedto
various donations such as 10 300
bottles of spring water; 10 000
finger rolls and 7 500 sachets
of sun tan cream which were promised
for Simon’s World’sLargest Picnic event

Well
Simon didn’t take them. In his
answer from the dead (his statement
which I have) he said: I haverecords of all the offers of
sponsorship, but I did not have to call on these offers as the event did not
take place.

He explained he had applied for a Public Events Licence with a very detailed plan.But as the people who had volunteered to
help him fell away he was left on his own and that’s why it was turned down by
the Bailiff’s Entertainment panel.

SIMON

You
complained that the Mail on Sunday article put the failure of all MrAbbot’s(‘t’
for two please) fundraising down to the intervention of Mr Norton. This most
emphatically is not the case.

So you kicked offyour postby seeing something that was not there just as the
cyber-bullies did in my son’s case. And you continued doing this throughout
your defence of Norton.

Inevitably
you left out things that might have been detrimental toNorton while at the same time you complained that the paper had not given the complete picture.

It quotes me as saying that Simon’s schemes failedto raise money, partly due to his own shortcomings
and partly because it was an impossible task to make a success of any project
being slated on the internet.

How can this possible mean that Norton stymied allSimon’s fund raising efforts.

You
quote Simon as saying in court papers:Peoplethink I am a
conman, dishonest, and even that I makeup the death of my sister. Because he (Norton)works
for the BBC everyone follows he(sic) and joins in.

You interpreted this as meaning that Simon was accusingNorton
of saying this about his sister when he was referring to peoplein general as having said this.

And
you defendedNorton, as you did throughout your post, by saying: There is no evidence at all that Mr Nortonmade any accusations against Mr Abbott that he made up the death of his
sister.

Of course there wasn’t and Simon never said there was.

I
dealt quite extensively in a previous post (CYBER WOLVES
HUNTING SIMON ABBOTT) about how Nortonarranged
for his photographer friend IanleSueur to be at St Thomas Church so he
could snatch a picture of Simon
during his meeting withNorton.

Flash LE SUEUR in the shadows

But
you didn’t mention anything about Le Sueur even being there or that the
photograph was then put on Twitter
to make Simon’s life a further hell.

AsNorton and Le Sueur were clearly acting together
they are equally responsible for what each of them did with that picture.

But
according to your version of this meeting Norton did everything right.

Snatched pic of SIMON

Nortonagreed
to meetSimon alone, but you sayNorton turned up with a few people to witness themeeting, and make
sure it was properly recorded.

Of course this wouldn’t have been the least
bit intimidating for Simon.

You quote this online message which you say
was purportedlywritten by the radio host: Simon, if you arereading this -
which my friends, hemight be – give it up, come clean on the finances of the Trust, put the
items you claim to have from the
famous to good use. I’ll auction them for some
people in real need instead of false events that help no one.

You go on to imply that this couldn’t be
any kind of bullying as the Mail did not make it clear how this couldbe deemed
harassment.

IAN LE SUEUR exposed

What about this that formed part of the quote
that you used only part of:I have pretty well run out
of patience with this guy. I’ve met him, tried to help him and he even had the
cheek to complain to the BBC that
I’m harassing him. The Police and the press and possibly the taxation
authorities must be sent all the complaints,
with hard evidence that Simon has actually done something
wrong. I will once again ask Jersey Police if
they have any further thoughts on him.

If that’s not harassment I don’t know what
is, especially as there was absolutely no evidence to warrant any kind of Police intervention.

Here’s
a sample taken from the court
records of a few more comments fromNortonand others, who climbed on this trolling
wagon so ably led by the presenter. They were made in about September 2011, when Simon was trying to organise a fund
raising event in Guernsey.

Norton:Our friend Simon
Abbott - For thosewishing for an update on what the Samantha Abbot Trust is doing -
it does appear he is attempting to hold a Fashion Show … in Guernsey.

Norton:As we find out more we will
publish … just thought you should know - it won’t happen - these events never
do.

****

Norton:Well he’ll have to
find another venuenow! The (sic) have been asking about him and I don’t think they like what they’ve
heard so far!

Karen Slater:When are we going to be able to
puta stop to this man
Murray you have done a great job so far can’t our local police sorthim out x

Daniel
Straiton:Thanks for the
update will makesure I pass the
info on. I don’t know about a film being made maybe a cartoon “Looney Tunes”

Fran Torode:the total complete fraud - you’dthink he should be inside for this??

Christophe Chateau:Am tagging some Guernseyfriends in this message so they can read the posts above and
be forewarned Avril Earl, David Earl please pass onto any Guernsey
contact!

Liz Walton:We’ll keep an eye out over hereMurray. Thanks for the
tip off.

Liz Walton:I have posted a warning to myGuernsey friends.

IS THIS HARRASSMENT TONY OR WAS IT JUST ‘ROBUST LANGUAGE’?

There
was a lot more similar stuff on both Facebook
and Twitter. Here’s a few of Ellen Vincent beauties that were on
Facebook:

Ellen Vincent:Is that Simon Abbott not onfacebook himself he’s only set up a page for his sister so as to
con us honest jersey people out of our money!!!! What a sicko he couldn’t have
really loved his sister to use her name in this way.

Ellen Vincent:I’ve just been blocked by simonabbott from
his sisters page for questioning him about his bad intentions.no one give this
man money if you want to donate do it with respectable valid charity not his
car crash im(sic)
starting to doubt he even had asister and hes(sic) just a typical con man(There’s the quoteTony that you blamed Simon for attributing to Norton)

Ellen Vincent:excactly(sic) who will take up thechallenge of
opening the simon abbott is a conman page and then we could set up a charity
fight between him and some big f.k.r
and all proceeds will go to charity without fail lol

IS THIS HARRASSMENT TONY OR IS IT STILL JUST ‘ROBUST LANGUAGE’?

You
say there is no evidence of continual andmass harassment by Tweets of the
kind suffered by, for instance, the historian Mary Beard.

Just because Simon didn’t receive a bomb threat the harassing he did get seems to have
been alright in your eyes, even though at least one Tweet suggested he should be assaulted.

You
also accuse me of letting my grief bechannelled into an outburst of
hate against Mr Norton.

TONY BELLOWS defender of the defenceless

You once again jumped to the wrong
conclusion. I could hardly hateNortonas
I had never heard of him until after my son died and nor have I ever met him.

But I believe that if you have a job as a
BBCpresenter you
should be a lot more responsible than to take part in cyber-bulling of this
kind, because it reflects not only on your own moral standing, but on the BBC’s as well.

And that’s why I felt this type of
bulling, which he was part of, should be exposed in an effort to stop it
happening again as it clearly must have pushed my son over the edge.

Regards,

Jon

P.S. You wouldn't by any chance be Norton's friend?

*NOTE: I have had numerous comments for the posts about my son Simon being cyber-bullied to death. The majority were from Jersey's largest family - ANONYMOUS. Only a few people had the guts to be named. When I asked a Jersey resident why so few people there were prepared to come out of the shadows he replied:Because they lack testicular fortitude.

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About Me

I was born in South Africa just before the Boer War whenever that was?
Started life with a golden spoon in my mouth which made eating rather difficult as a result I was under nourished as a child.
Went to a posh school where I only got moved up a class when my old man donated another sight screen for the cricket pitch.
Career prospects were dismal and I was once turned down for a job in the London sewers. "Too highly qualified;"that’s what they said.
I became a journalist when the Police Force wouldn’t have me.
Like most journos I know nothing about everything but I still write about it.
I decided to have my own blog so I wouldn't have to drink with the editor for hours on end to get my stuff published when according to my independent assessment it’s always of great news value.
My religious beliefs are: You only die once so remember, "You can’t be serious and Have Fun."
NEWS FLASH: I've just been appointed the Poor Man's Press Ombudsman by Presidential Decree (Not to be confused with the PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA'S, SA Press Ombudsman)